The impact of authentic leadership on employee engagement and productivity in South Africa

Abstract

To be able to understand how personality traits i.e. honesty-humility and leadership styles affect engagement/productivity in the workplace, this study has been conducted. 160 participants participated in a field study to explore the link between honesty-humility, authentic leadership, and employee engagement/productivity. Correlation and regression analyses were used to test hypotheses. Employee engagement/productivity is impacted by honesty-humility, and authentic leadership enhances honesty-humility. Honesty-humility should be examined in relation to other leadership styles in future studies. This relationship can also be further explored across different cultures through further studies. Authentic leadership can foster engagement within an organization by creating an environment that is conducive to employee engagement through positive leadership behaviour. In this study, the honesty-humility dimension is added to the established Big Five model to expand the model to include consideration of individual differences. Authentic leadership is also examined in relation to personality traits and engagement, as a moderating effect